MIT Supply Chain Frontiers

Moderna’s Road to the Vaccine and Beyond

Join MIT Global SCALE Connect for an in-depth conversation with Paul Granadillo, SVP Global Supply Chain at Moderna. MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi speaks with Paul about how the pandemic vaccine response reshaped manufacturing, business, and supply chains at Moderna.

Mr. Granadillo shares his professional experiences learned from joining the company during a time of growth. He describes some of the methods Moderna uses to meet its logistics and production requirements during the ramp-up to a global Covid-19 vaccine rollout. 

Recorded at MIT SCALE Connect, the winter education convening of the MIT Global SCALE Network.

Bottleneck Analysis to Understand Systems in Disruption

Bottleneck analysis aiming to increase asset productivity has commonly been applied inside the four walls of production and distribution facilities. The pandemic disrupted global supply chains with dramatic shifts in demand and constraints in supply with cascading effects. Shippers then dynamically shifted traditional origin-destination patterns causing stress on the networks of logistics service providers. 

As a result, bottlenecks in the global movement of goods continue to emerge in new locations and for longer durations. Today we speak with Jarrod Goentzel, director of The Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab about how they study dramatic disruption of supply and demand during disasters and has created tools to rapidly identify bottlenecks and dynamically determine interventions to increase flow.

We discuss their conceptual approach and simulation models using the fuel supply chain in the U.S. with use cases around recent disruptions such as the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack and Hurricane Ida. For more information on the approaches visit: https://humanitarian.mit.edu/research/ and to learn more about joining the MIT CTL Supply Chain Exchange visit: https://ctl.mit.edu/outreach 

Voices from Beyond the Open Road - Utilization, Shippers, and Driver Quality of Life pt. 2

Earlier this year, MIT CTL's David Correll spoke with over-the-road truckers about their experiences in order to shed light on why it is that U.S. truckers appear to be both scarce and underutilized at the same time. 

During the year, Dr. Correll oversaw three MIT SCM master's capstones that addressed truck driver utilization and retention in contrast to shipper and receiver policies and practices. These were completed as part of the MIT FreightLab's Driver Initiative.

In today's episode, we hear how a variety of factors influence driver utilization, and how they may impact the widespread driver shortage currently experienced in the U.S. David's guests offer solutions that shippers, warehouse managers, dispatchers, and their companies can implement to improve.

Download a transcript of this episode.

Read the capstones covered in this episode.

Diving Deep into the Determinants of Driver Dwell Authored by: Michelle Catherine Roy, Leora Reyhan Sauter

Goldilocks and the Three Dispatchers: Quantifying the Impact of Dispatcher Management on Truck Driver Performance Authored by: Danielle Procter, Paulo Sousa Jr.

Automation of Warehouse Decision Making Authored by: Roogers Marino, Zeyu Wu

 

Amazon Last-Mile Routing Research Challenge Uncovers New Research Methods on a Global Scale

The MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (MIT CTL) and Amazon engaged with a global community of researchers across a range of disciplines, from computer science to business operations, to supply chain management, challenging them to build data-driven route optimization models leveraging massive historical route execution data and machine learning models.

While we congratulated the winning teams and all participants in the news, Dr. Matthias Winkenbach joins today's Frontiers to share some insights and outcomes that the production of a research challenge brought about.

He speaks about how convening researchers from across all levels of academia and supplying rich data and a compelling problem, may drive more new research in areas of inquiry that are sparsely published on.

Learn more about the Challenge: https://routingchallenge.mit.edu/

Learn more about the Megacity Logistics Lab: https://megacitylab.mit.edu/

Key Performance and Key Learning Indicators in Digital Transformation

Today, on MIT Supply Chain Frontiers, editorial director, Ken Cottrill speaks with Maria Jesus Sáenz, director of MIT Digital Supply Chain Transformation Lab, about how companies use artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify key performance and key learning indicators during digital transformations.

Sáenz shares examples of how companies may use AI and ML to collaborate on data models and leverage publicly available data to craft more accurate forecasts or discover hidden efficiencies. Learn more about how AI and machine learning are used in digital transformations at digitlsc.mit.edu

View and download full transcript: https://ctl.mit.edu/podcasts/key-performance-and-key-learning-indicators-digital-transformation

Global Supply Chain Risk and Innovation with Mark Bakker

In today’s episode, Research Scientists Alexis Bateman and Inma Borrella speak with Mark Bakker, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Global Operations at Hewlett Packard Enterprise about the tools and skills needed for sustained global supply chain management when facing disruptions.

Mark shares his insights about how HP Enterprise balanced demand and supply during uncertain conditions brought about by various disruptions. He shares tips about the skills and attitudes needed to succeed in today's business environments.

Champions for Change - Women Leaders in Supply Chain Management

This year for international women's day, the MIT Women in Supply Chain Initiative (WISCI) hosted a leadership panel to celebrate women working in the supply chain field. Today's episode offers highlights from the conversation.

Julie Van de Kamp, Vice President of Customer Experience at U.S. Xpress, Inc, and Tricia Brannigan, VP Procurement - Head of Global Procurement at The Hershey Company share candidly with WISCI Lead, Katie Date, about their approaches to managing, mentorship, and work-life balance. The panel discusses strategies for creating more gender parity in their own organizations and in those of their suppliers.

Learn more about MIT CTL Women in Supply Chain Initiative here.

Voices from the Open Road: Utilization, Shippers, and Driver Quality of Life

Supply chains in the U.S. rely heavily on over-the-road trucking to reliably and safely provide essential supplies to businesses and consumers. These networks are comprised of innumerable relationships between shippers who have goods to move and carriers who they contract to move them. It is often warehouse workers and truckers who are the "end users" of these complex relationships.

Today, MIT CTL research scientist and FreightLab co-director David Correll chats with three experienced voices in trucking to better understand what life is like on the ground—or on the road if you will. David speaks with Desiree Ann Wood A.K.A. Trucker Desiree, founder of REAL Women in Trucking, Mark Cavanagh, Goodyear Highway award winner driving with CTL Partner USXpress, and "Long Haul" Paul Marhoefer, 40-year industry veteran, musician, and host of Radiotopia's, Over the Road.

In today’s discussion, we hear about some of the delight and discontent on the open road and attempt to shed some light on why it is that U.S. truckers appear to be both scarce and underutilized at the same time. This conversation is part of Dr. Correll's ongoing research within the MIT FreighLab Driver Initiative.

Accessible transcripts of all podcasts available here. https://ctl.mit.edu/podcasts

Supplier Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - Challenges and Opportunities

Initial research indicates that there are both commercial and social benefits to DE&I programs within organizations. MIT CTL and MIT Sustainable Supply Chains make a case for companies to revisit their efforts (HBR article) and, if necessary, commit themselves to take supplier diversity efforts more seriously.

During a recent MIT CTL roundtable*, professionals from across industry met to discuss the challenges and opportunities currently facing the implementation of supplier diversity within organizations. From measurement and metrics to leadership collaboration, the discussion proposed some avenues for additional consideration.

In today's episode, Nalini Bates from Procter and Gamble and Kris Oswold of UPS are joined by MIT CTL's Alexis Bateman to point out some of the prevailing challenges and possible opportunities revealed during the conversation. While this research area is emergent at MIT CTL and a full report will be available soon, you can also sign up to receive more information about supplier diversity research at the Center as it becomes available at the link below. 

https://sustainable.mit.edu/contact-us/

*MIT CTL roundtables are intimate discussions open to our Partner companies and invited guests. Roundtable reports are published regularly. Learn more about becoming a partner here.

Accessible transcripts of all podcasts available here. https://ctl.mit.edu/podcasts

Flexibility for the Future - How Disruption Fosters Innovation

Like never before, companies have learned during the pandemic to pivot quickly across multiple dimensions. They ramped up production, changed their processes, and adopted new technologies, at speed unimaginable before the crisis. In only six weeks, contract manufacturer Flex ramped up its ability to produce ventilators while New Balance designed and produced thousands of masks, in a matter of days. Such transformations can afford many successful companies with new competitive advantages.

In this conversation, you will learn how two companies use these lessons to set themselves up for the post-pandemic future in the B2B and B2C markets.

In his book, THE NEW (AB)NORMAL: Reshaping Business and Supply Chain Strategy Beyond Covid-19, MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi details their stories as well as many others. In this episode, Lynn Torrel, Chief Procurement and Supply Chain Officer at Flex, and Dave Wheeler, COO at New Balance, will join professor Sheffi for a conversation about the lessons learned during the pandemic, leadership lessons, and their views about what supply chains will look like in the future.

Accessible transcripts of all podcasts available here. https://ctl.mit.edu/podcasts